This ILBIJERRI Theatre and Belvoir production opens this week (June 1-3) as part of GPAC’s 2017 Deakin University Theatre Season.

In the neglected storehouse of Australian history, this is one of the definitive stories.

At a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry in 1881, the men and women of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve went head-to-head with the Aboriginal Protection Board. Their goal was both simple and revolutionary: to be allowed to continue the brilliant experiment in self-determination they had pioneered for themselves on the scrap of country left to them.

Coranderrk recreates the Inquiry. This is both great theatre and great history. It revives the voices of all those, black and white, who fought for a better compact between the country’s oldest and newest inhabitants – three dozen of them from 132 years ago, speaking for themselves, directly to us, as though the question at hand remains unanswered today.

Celebrated stage and screen actor Trevor Jamieson (who has previously performed at GPAC in Storm Boy and Namatjira) plays inspirational leader William Barak in this tribute to the resilience and adaptability of a people who rose despite the odds.

GPAC’s showing of Coranderrk is part of a national tour and coincides with Reconciliation Week activities in Geelong.